Evaluating and Clustering the Production Factors Using the Combined Model of the Clustering Data and ANP (Case Study: Abzarsazi Industries of Fakouri in Iran)

One of the strategic decisions at functional level of any organization is decision making about manufacturing strategy. Manufacturing strategy is a perspective distinguishing a company from other present companies in that industry and creates a king of stability in decisions and gives a special direction to organizational activities. Competitive priorities are one of the content components of the production strategy. Study of some past research about the production strategy shows that there is a general agreement about four priorities including cost, quality, delivery and flexibility. Almost most theoreticians believe that in the production strategy, the level of importance and priority of any of these four factors must be determined. Of course, some other researchers have considered performance and innovation as other competitive priorities. Skinner believes that the emphasis on any of the priorities is a direction to design and plan the production system. What the producer offers to the customers is six important production outputs including cost, quality, performance, delivery, flexibility and innovation. A program or strategy is needed to determine how the required outputs are presented at the required levels. The production systems present these outputs. Determining the production systems, production factors and the resulting outputs is a question always proposed to the producers. So in this research using Miltenburg's strategy worksheet and the combined model of the cluster analysis and network analysis process, the industrial strategy of the firm is analyzed. For this purpose, the production factors (production levers) are examined and analyzed as the main elements of the production strategy. The production outputs that are the production competitive priorities of any organization are also identified. Then using the results from the questionnaire and the network analysis process and Super Decisions Software, the weight of the indices (production outputs) are determined and the options (production factors or levers) are selected and prioritized. Finally using the process of the hierarchical clustering analysis and SPSS and Machaon Software, the optimal number of the clusters is calculated and the levers are clustered.

Manufacturing outputs, Production factors, Network analysis process (ANP), Hierarchical clustering